What happened :)

Hey guys!

After an eternity, I finally post again! Can you believe it?

I am sorry that it took me so long. In my defense, it was really busy and it’s really easy to fall into the habit of just not posting after a while.

So, to recap the last ... 8 weeks or so...

Well, I wrote from Vancouver, didn’t I? Vancouver and Vancouver Island was awesome, and I promise to upload some pictures the next couple of days. Anyway, so I stopped saying we would head down to Toffino... that was a bit of a bummer, to be honest, since the weather wasn’t accommodating at all and I wasn’t feeling very well, but the drive was amazing. I’ve never seen that much green in my life.

It’s hard to imagine if you haven’t seen it with your own eyes, but wow. So much forest!

That evening, Stanley Cup game 6 Blackhawks vs Bruins was on the TV, and I think I almost died. My heart certainly constricted painfully more than just a couple of times!

I was sitting perched on the edge of the sofa, almost biting my nails—which I don’t usually do—since the Hawks were in the position to win the Cup that night.

It started alright, but then the Bruins got the lead, only to have Toews, the Captain (and my favourite player) tied the goal up in the dying seconds of a penalty kill (right in the second in which his teammate left the penalty box). It was only his third goal of the playoffs, which made it so much sweeter.

Unfortunately, the Bruins got the lead back in the third period, and I was already like, “No, it’s going back to Chicago, don’t get your hopes up for OT, don’t because you might be disappointed” and right in the moment my parents came back from Starbucks (they couldn’t watch me fret over the game), the Hawks scored. With 1:16 left in the game, Kane got the puck, passed it to Keith, and Keith gave it to Toews who set up his linemate Bickell with a nice pass through a Bruins defenseman’s legs, and Bickell just tapped it in.

I was—I couldn’t believe it! I was close to screaming, because suddenly they were back in the game!

And they showed the replay so I was like whispering to myself, “Omg, omg, keep it till OT, keep it till OT” and then, like in a dream (or nightmare, for Boston fans), the Hawks scored again, SEVENTEEN SECONDS after their other goal.

They won the Cup, of course.

It was pretty amazing. My tumblr dash exploded first, and then it got really quiet while fans all around the world celebrated the win.

I think I was close to crying, but wow. That was certainly an experience, following a team for a full season (I think I missed all of two regular season games)

Anyway, this of course made my day—my week, even, and we travelled back to Kelowna without any incidents.

The days in Kelowna were amazing, and even though my parents were skeptical whether it would be so great with all of us and my host family in such close proximity, they were pleasantly surprised, if I may say so.

The reverse culture shock wasn’t as bad as it could have been, although I’m strongly considering making another post just dedicated to that, because there are some things that, in my opinion, are important if you want it to be smooth.

We did a lot of stuff in Kelowna itself, and the weather—omg, it got so. Hot. I thought I was going to melt!

I did the Knox Mountain Trail with my parents—we saw an eagle or a falcon or something circling high up over our heads—and we did some sightseeing in Kelowna on our own.

I picked up my report card and said my final goodbyes, and it was sad but exciting. I got to meet the parents of another German exchange student, and it was pretty cool.

With my host family and my parents, I did the Kettle Valley Railway Tour again because my dad is a huge fan of old trains and the view was so nice again—we were more lucky with the weather and Bob was kinda laughing at me for taking a sweater, but damn was she glad to pull it over her head when the wind came up… I could remember pretty well how chilly it had been on that train!

One night, we went grilling at the beach with hotdogs and swimming and too much chips and Doritos and it was so delicious… Although it got pretty chilly the later it got. Just writing about it makes my eyes sting with how much I miss it! But more about that later on.

I started packing on the 29^th, and let me tell you, that was chaos pure. Do you know how much stuff you accumulate over ten months? A TON, I have to say.

We went to see a parade in the afternoon, kinda the ‘Pre-Canada Day Parade’ over in West Kelowna and… it was alright, I guess? It’s more for smaller kids, but it was cool to see all the different vehicles and stuff!

The best day anyway was Canada Day, which was one of the days I absolutely didn’t want to miss.

It was in Waterfront Park, and it was—there were so many stands, and we got a turban (which I had to leave in Canada, unfortunately :( ) and pins and tattoos with the Canadian Flag on them and it was a lot of fun.

Bob didn’t feel so well and it was almost too many people and too much new stuff, but all in all, I thought it was great.

In the evening, there was a huge firework from down near Waterfront, with accompanying music coming through the radio.

We had blankets with us and it was pretty nice.

The day of our trip back came far too soon, and we said goodbye to Andy the night before and then to the rest of the family in the morning before the girls left for camp, but the girls surprised us at the airport!

It was heartbreaking saying goodbye, even though I couldn’t deny that I was looking forward to home.

I didn’t cry, but I don’t think it actually hit me that it was over until much, much later.

The flight back… I would describe it as a nightmare, but that kind of suggests ‘sleep’ and that was… nowhere near our minds.  It was horrible. Seriously. There were crying children in front of us and the Lufthansa seats were too small and it was so uncomfortable.

I slept for maybe thirty minutes—if even that much—and as soon as we touched down at got our luggage, I called Doro, and we talked for half an hour.

The closer we got to home, the more excited I got, until I was basically vibrating on the backseat, going ‘home home home home home home home’ and I was soooo excited to be back home…

We got our dog first, then stopped by my best friend and then I was home for all of two minutes—our neighbours who had been sitting our house had decorated with a Bavarian Flag and had put some cake and Brezn into our dining room—before we already left again to say hi to our other neighbours.

It was the most amazing feeling to be back in my own bed after almost a year, and to have my piano back…

We unpacked our stuff over the next couple of days, and I went straight back to school—something which I regret immensely.

I was looking forward to it so much, but I was met with disinterest and outright hostility, which made it easy for me to choose what to do next year: I’ll go to a different school. Because I don’t have to put up with the way my classmates treat me and each other.

I got a leave of absence for the rest of the school year, and we already talked to the one in charge of grades 11 and 12 at the other school, and now it’s certain that I’ll go to school there next year.

I’m also in contact with the representative from the University of Regensburg about starting uni next year, but we still have to find a date when to meet up.

My ‘Hey I’m back’ Party was super nice, too, and I made fudge and cinnamon buns and hotdogs and burgers and it was Canada themed and awesome!

We didn’t have internet for a week—which was horrible—and then I went to Frankfurt with Dorothea during the first week of actual holidays (where I also didn’t really have internet, which wasn’t so bad). Now I’m on vacation with my mom for a workshop on how to dye yarn together with two friends of hers and the husband and dog of the one friend, and Dusting of course loves that he has a companion—he and my dad are also there J

I really don’t have internet and only a very sketchy connection on my phone, and to top things off, first my headphones and then my iPod stopped working: my right ear bud doesn’t work at all, and the button to switch my iPod on and off broke or something, so I can’t really use it.

I already skyped with my host family, though, and it was so great!

Although it made me miss Canada so much, I can’t even describe it. I made the mistake of listening to a playlist on my laptop I haven’t listened to in a long while, and now my eyes are stinging. I wanna go back…

I especially miss the school system and the general niceness of the teachers and people and I miss my host family and the girls and just ugh.

I wish I could just beam myself back… But we’re thinking about going to Canada next year; I said I wanted to go during the winter holidays, since I really want to see another hockey game, and maybe if I’m lucky, the Hawks will be playing up there, and if not, I hope I can go see the Oilers or at least the Canucks (I draw the line at the Flames, to be honest) since we’ll be up there anyway, and of course a Rockets game!

But that’s not written in stone at all—not even in sand, if I’m being honest. But I really, really hope I can visit Kelowna again…

Anyway, there will be a post with pictures—I have 5,202 altogether, but I already managed to delete a couple, so now I’m down to 1,600, roughly.

Huh, what else I did was check what I missed about Maths, and it seems to be nothing more than a single topic that I need to take a look at, which is a great thing to hear.

So now I need to take another look at German and Chemistry, and then I should be able to wing this thing otherwise :)